Biographers are storytellers as well as amateur psychiatrists—not
to mention, journalists, political theorists, art critics and family therapists,
says Richard Norton Smith, speaking from his experience as an author of
six major biographies. The current director of the Dole Institute of Politics
and former director of Grand Rapids’ own Gerald R. Ford Museum,
Smith has penned the life stories of such notables as Robert and Elizabeth
Dole, Thomas E. Dewey, Herbert Hoover and George Washington. He will share
the curious and sometimes bizarre biographical experience as well as offer
insights about the process. Through anecdotes and tales, Smith will highlight
the intrigue of examining another person’s life and the challenge
of making that person come to life through words.